So a little about our first trip

Let me tell you a little about or first trip to meet our children.

First the travel - we left on Saturday on a 7:00 pm flight to Moscow. Not so bad - Nicholas laid out across the seats and slept pretty well - Dennis & I did not - so now we fly for 9 hours and arrive in Moscow at 1:00 Sunday afternoon. Nicholas is feeling pretty good - Dennis & I not so much b/c now we have been up for over 24 hours. We are met at the airport and need to decide what to do before our 10:00 PM train ride. Option A - sit in the lobby of a Marriot hotel - no not really. Option B see what renting a room at the train station is all about - apparently they never offered this option up to visitors so they didn't really know what that was all about but they didn't want us just hanging at the train station either & neither did we.

We arrive at the train station and after much heated Russian discussion between our driver and the woman behind the glass we finally get our room -simply 2 twin beds and a window (but free WI-FI - who would have thunk!!). Anyway we had stopped at a market to pick up some food - and this was taxing - don't forget we had no sleep so I'm really tired and not in the mood to walk around a Russian supermarket.

We had about 4 hours to waste and we couldn't sleep since we really didn't think we would wake up - so we sat - Nick watched DVD's and I had my Nook (love the Nook).

The train station was something right out of the movies - all the sights we saw were really just like out of the movies - dark, cold, depressing, dreary - so surreal. The train station which is a hub to about 9 regions in Russia literally stood still in time. The overhead lights were light bulbs hanging across what looked like extension cord power lines - it is so hard to describe - it was so much like the movies. The train station was full of people coming and going - thank goodness for that window view we had.

View at train station

Hanging

At 8:30 we needed to wait inside the train depot for our coordinator who we didn't know what she looked like but not to worry she had many pictures of us so finally she walks up to us and we are feeling much better! Nick is having a blast running around with Dennis keeping up with him!! We then needed to wait for the doctor we hired to come with us to examine the twins - she apparently was already waiting out by the trains. Now let me start by saying the train ride is an overnight train and we had to get a 4 person sleeper car since Nicholas was with us. You would not believe the train sleeper cars. What an adventure we were on.........

Train sleeper car

Train walkway

We slept some - Dennis & I - how could we not - we were exhausted - Nick slept good but now we are in a different time zone so about 3:00 AM Russian time Nick woke up and announced he was hungry - no worries I packed snacks for such an occasion - so we all had snack time & he fell fast asleep - Dennis & I did not!! One thing we were told is they knock on the door to wake you up about 45 minutes before the train hits the station and when it arrives they want you off - immediatly - and trust when I say you'd better listen - Russians are very serious people - meanwhile Dennis & I are just exhausted!! So the doctor passes our car at wake up time and we ask if she can help get us coffee & tea and - no one speaks English so she does and we are feeling better (ok we are feeling awake!). We pull in and hustle off the train to find out we had 45 minutes when we arrive to our hotel to either eat breakfast - which is what the others were doing.....Dennis & I and Nicholas have now travelled well over 2 days with no showers so we needed to at least freshen up before we meet the twins. Talk about rushing to get ready....shower, shower & shower and dress dress dress - forget about breakfast!

We arrive to the baby house - it is snowing & cold - not freezing cold like I anticipated but cold none the less. The baby house is buried deep in the back of a small untraveled road - deep deep in - I want to say like an old warehouse but refuse to think that since this is where about 70 orphans live and they only know this place to be home!! Quite sad yet very much set up like the baby house in Kaz - as far as the building goes.

Heading into the orphanage

We meet with the Director and they immediatly bring in the orphanage doctor to go over the medicals with our hired doctor - meanwhile we are sitting thinking come on already we want to meet the twins. By the way - thank goodness for my Nook this is what Nicholas had to entertain himself. THANK YOU DENNIS FOR INSISTING WE TAKE THE NOOK LOADED WITH GAME APPS FOR NICHOLAS!!! Imagine Nicholas sitting and not understanding anything that was going on - at this point he still doesn't know what we are doing here or why we have taken a plane & train ride yet. We listen to the rundown of the medicals for what seemed like hours -probably more like an hour and then they bring us to a "playroom" to wait. Again thank goodness we have the Nook!!

They finally bring in the twins - first let me note that they have changed from the pictures in our referral - the tiny girl was much bigger now and the little boy seemed about the same. Anyway when the kids seen us they SCREAMED - and I mean screamed in terror. Dennis & I will never ever forget the look of pure terror on these two babies faces. Now mind you Nicholas is taking this all in and Dennis & are in shock. Let me explain that with Nicholas we did not experience this at all - so we were thrown off by the reaction - and when I say reaction I mean screaming & crying and nothing or no one could console them. They decided to take the little boy out of the room b/c they felt that once she cried he then cried and visa versa.....it was incredibly unnerving for both Dennis & I.

First visit with the twins

Pretty much the visit was over and Dennis & I are unsettled & really concerned about our first visit. You see with Nicholas we did not encounter any of this - yes he was afraid but came to us easily and settled into playing with us pretty easily. We had 14 days with him one on one......here we have 2 days - 4 visits.

Back to the hotel to get some food and collect our thoughts...now let me explain Dennis was pretty adamant that we not drag my laptop - why he exclaimed, we have the cameras, the DVD player & the NOOK and your blackberry.......it is then I realized by blackberry was not working - not sure why since I work in the International Dept of my company....and no one within my company knew I was out of the country which meant I was still overseeing my work flow...........I was upset and concerned & now another thing to worry about!@#@!

View outside our hotel room

The afternoon visit was again filled with screaming crying babies who could not be consoled by anyone as long as we were in the room...they had recommended bringing sweets - I only brought toys (silly me!) but the doctor who was still with us was great and brought candies to the second visit - it helped but it was still not good. Everyone was trying everything to help them settle but nothing seemed to work. The doctor was impressed with the children and said they are just terribly freightened since they had never been out of the orphanage and most certainly never see men.........we left to go back to our hotel & regroup & sleep.

Dennis & slept for a bit, in our room we have three single beds - just like the Three little bears as we told Nicholas - Nicholas slept in the middle bed and settled in easily....Dennis & I woke up at midnight & were sitting talking it is hard for us to get in a real conversation with Nicholas being with us so we were chatting about the day when up pops Nicholas, yep about 3 AM declaring it's snack time.......we had snack and all went to bed..........

Day two next.